octothorpe

Ralph Carlsen explains the origin of the word octothorpe (or octothorp) in his note to the Telecom Digest journal. The word was invented in the 1960s by Bell Labs supervisor Don MacPherson. MacPherson was giving lectures about the new Bell Labs PBX systems and felt he needed to come up with a word to describe the "#" symbol. He thought that because there are eight points in the symbol, the word "OCTO" should be included in the name. The source of the "THORPE" part is not fully confirmed, but Carlsen tells that MacPherson was participating in a group that was trying to get the athlete Jim Thorpe's Olympic medals returned from Sweden. Another explanation of the "THORPE" part is that the sign was thought to look like a group of eight fields surrounding a village. "Thorpe" is the Old Norse word for a hamlet, village or farm, common in British place names. Due to the lack of exact information, though, many dictionaries tell that the word is of unknown origin.

Octothorpe is a (usually) three-person group out of Seattle, Washington, involved in the Song Fight community in addition to their own assortment of local and occasional out of state shows. They occasionally adopt additional members for live shows.

Octothorpe has participated in what has been estimated at 48 Song Fight-related submissions at this point in time, which has been considered possible justification for their confinement to an institute for the criminally insane.